Cloud Solution Architect - Data & AI

Location: UK (Hybrid)
Practice: Data & AI

About HSO

HSO is a Business Transformation Partner with deep industry expertise and global reach. As one of Microsoft's leading partners, we help organisations unlock the full potential of Microsoft Dynamics 365, Azure, Data and AI technologies to deliver meaningful business outcomes.

With operations across Europe, North America and Asia, HSO combines industry knowledge, technical excellence and a people-first culture to help customers modernise their businesses, transform operations and embrace innovation with confidence.

As demand for Data & AI solutions continues to accelerate, we're expanding our Data & AI practice and looking for experienced Cloud Solution Architects to help shape the next generation of customer transformation programmes.

The Role

As a Cloud Solution Architect - Data & AI, you'll play a pivotal role in shaping and qualifying customer opportunities across the Microsoft cloud ecosystem.

This is a highly visible role that sits at the intersection of sales, enterprise architecture and delivery, combining technical leadership with commercial thinking. You'll work closely with customers, Microsoft and internal stakeholders to understand business challenges, identify opportunities, design compelling solutions and create clear pathways from initial discovery through to successful delivery.

You'll help organisations transform the way they use data, analytics and artificial intelligence, translating business ambition into practical, costed and deliverable solutions.

Success in this role requires more than technical expertise. You'll need strong consulting and stakeholder management skills, the confidence to challenge assumptions, and the commercial awareness to ensure opportunities are both valuable for clients and aligned with HSO's delivery capability.

What You'll Be Doing

Opportunity Qualification & Solution Shaping

• Lead Data & AI opportunity qualification alongside Account Managers, Business Development teams and Enterprise Architects.
• Facilitate customer discovery workshops, architecture assessments and strategic discussions.
• Understand customer business drivers, challenges and desired outcomes.
• Help customers define realistic transformation roadmaps aligned to business priorities.
• Qualify opportunities using structured sales and consulting methodologies, including MEDDIC/MEDDICC approaches.

Solution Architecture & Advisory

• Design end-to-end Data & AI solutions using Microsoft technologies and best practices.
• Shape modern analytics, AI and data platform architectures that are commercially viable and technically deliverable.
• Provide architectural leadership across data platform modernisation, analytics, AI and automation initiatives.
• Ensure alignment with Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework and Azure Well-Architected principles.
• Communicate architectural trade-offs and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Commercial Leadership

• Translate customer requirements into proposals, statements of work, delivery plans and business cases.
• Produce solution estimates, cost models and phased implementation approaches.
• Support customers in understanding ROI, value realisation and investment considerations.
• Challenge unclear scope and identify delivery, cost and commercial risks early in the sales cycle.
• Work closely with delivery teams to validate assumptions before commitments are made.

Growth & Go-to-Market

• Contribute to the evolution of HSO's Data & AI propositions and repeatable offerings.
• Develop demonstrations, accelerators, sales collateral and industry-specific solution narratives.
• Support RFPs, bid responses, executive presentations and proof-of-concept engagements.
• Collaborate with Microsoft stakeholders to drive pipeline growth and co-sell opportunities.
• Keep up to date with emerging Microsoft technologies and industry trends across Data & AI.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate combines strong technical capability with exceptional commercial awareness.

You'll be equally comfortable discussing board-level business outcomes with executive stakeholders as you are diving into architecture decisions with technical teams.

Commercial & Consulting Experience

You'll have:

• Proven experience in a Solution Architecture, Pre-Sales, Consulting or Technical Advisory role.
• Experience working within a Microsoft partner, consultancy or enterprise technology environment.
• Strong commercial acumen and experience creating proposals, business cases and Statements of Work.
• The ability to qualify opportunities and challenge assumptions constructively.
• Excellent workshop facilitation, discovery and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience presenting to senior business and technical audiences.
• The ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear business value.
• Understanding of opportunity qualification methodologies such as MEDDIC or MEDDICC.

Experience across industries such as manufacturing, retail, financial services, healthcare, public sector, not-for-profit, utilities or professional services would be advantageous.

Technical Experience

We recognise that few candidates will have expertise across every area listed below. We're primarily looking for strong Data & AI architecture experience across the Microsoft ecosystem.

Essential

Data & Analytics

• Microsoft Fabric
• Lakehouse architecture patterns
• Power BI and self-service analytics
• Semantic modelling and reporting solutions
• Data platform modernisation and analytics strategy

Azure Data Platform

• Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS)
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Azure Databricks
• Azure SQL Database
• Azure Cosmos DB
• Azure Data Factory

AI & Automation

• Azure AI Services
• Azure OpenAI Service
• Azure AI Foundry
• Copilot Studio
• Agentic AI patterns and intelligent automation solutions
• Document intelligence and AI-driven business use cases

Data Engineering & Platform Delivery

• SQL
• Python and/or PySpark
• Data pipelines and transformation frameworks
• CI/CD concepts and deployment automation
• Azure DevOps and/or GitHub
• Infrastructure as Code awareness
• Environment promotion and release management approaches

Advantageous

Data Governance & Security

• Microsoft Purview
• Data governance frameworks
• Data lineage and catalogue solutions
• Information protection concepts
• Role-based access control
• Azure Key Vault
• Secure platform design principles

Integration & Application Connectivity

• Azure Logic Apps
• Azure Functions
• Azure Service Bus
• Azure API Management
• Enterprise integration patterns
• Operational and analytical workload integration

Certifications

Microsoft certifications are not essential but are highly desirable, particularly across:

• Microsoft Azure
• Microsoft Fabric
• Data & Analytics
• Artificial Intelligence
• Security

As a leading Microsoft partner, HSO actively invests in certification, specialisation and continuous learning, helping our consultants stay at the forefront of Microsoft's rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Why Join HSO?

This is an exciting opportunity to join one of Microsoft's most respected global partners during a period of significant growth in Data & AI.

You'll have the opportunity to:

• Shape the future of HSO's Data & AI propositions and offerings.
• Work alongside Microsoft on strategic customer initiatives.
• Influence major digital, data and AI transformation programmes.
• Help organisations realise measurable value from data and artificial intelligence.
• Work with some of the most innovative technologies in the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Collaborate with highly skilled consultants, architects and delivery professionals across the globe.
• Benefit from continuous professional development, certification support and access to Microsoft's latest technologies.

Most importantly, you'll have the freedom to combine commercial thinking, architectural leadership and innovation to create meaningful outcomes for customers and make a real impact on the future of Data & AI transformation.

Ready to help shape the future of Data & AI? We'd love to hear from you.